Making Tax Digital (MTD) is the most fundamental change to the administration of the tax system for at least 20 years. Keeping your financial records will become increasing digital and most businesses will need to use software or apps to keep business records – the days of manual record keeping will be over! The essential …

More and more of our clients are interested in cloud-based accounting packages. Cloud-accounting is book-keeping software on the internet not on a local hard drive or server. You pay is a monthly fee for the privilege of using the software, you don’t have to download anything on your computer; you don’t need to back-up data; …

CICs are organisations pursuing non-political social objectives, providing community facilities or trading with a social purpose. A CIC is not a charity, and is prohibited from applying for charitable status. CICs are regulated by the CIC Regulator, based at Companies House. A CIC has a number of potential advantages over the alternative structures: Limited liability; …

In the July 2015 Budget the Chancellor introduced a compulsory living wage, it will be paid to workers aged 25 and above and from April 2016 it will be set at £7.20 an hour with a target of £9 an hour by 2020. Part-time and full-time workers will be eligible for the living wage rate. …

Why is this happening To encourage more people to set aside money for retirement, the Government is introducing workplace pensions for eligible workers. Under rules introduced in October 2012, employers are required to automatically enrol all eligible staff into a workplace pension scheme from their staging date and pay a minimum contribution into the pension …

Pension schemes and tax relief A pension is one of the most tax-efficient ways of saving for retirement. Pension schemes that are registered with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) can qualify for tax relief on: Pension contributions Investment income and gains Some lump sums paid from the scheme Contributions When you make a payment into …

Once you know you have to employ staff you will be left with a decision as to the method of administrating the payroll that best suits the organisation. The options are: Administer yourself using free software Administer yourself using commercial software Get someone else to do it via payroll bureau Free Software: The main advantage …

Running Payroll Once you have decided someone is an employee you have to put them on the payroll and of course you are obligated to deduct tax and national insurance from their salaries. To do this you need to inform the government how much each employee earns on a regular basis by registering with HMRC …

Employee or Self Employed One of the decisions a business has to make is whether or not specific individuals are actually employees. This may sound like an easy question but it’s not as straight forward as it sounds. It is quite common for business to treat someone who works for them or on their behalf …

Why? Accounting records are necessary to control a business, monitor cash flow and to record income and expenditure. It is also a requirement of HMRC and Company Law for companies to keep adequate books and records. The definition of adequate will depend upon the nature of the business, for example, a start – up will …